Design and Analysis of a Passively Compliant, Biologically Inspired Robot Arm

This paper is on the design and analysis of a robot arm that is passively compliant so as to safely interact with humans. The robot arm is actuated by Mckibben Artificial muscles which operate in an agonistic-antagonistic manner, and is an inspiration from the human biceps and triceps. The robot arm is a pick and place manipulator and the pick and place positions are derived using forward kinematics. MATLAB is used for calculating link positions, velocities and accelerations. Joint torques, joint angles and forces acting on the robot arm are also calculated using MATLAB. Solid works is used in the design and analysis of the robot arm. The robot arm links are designed using Aluminum 6061 alloy and the joints are designed using acrylic (medium-hard) material to achieve the compliance that is required with the help of Pneumatic artificial Muscles (PAMs).